SO NEAR YET SO FAR

After talking to Brendan's doctor in Sydney about Brendan's transplant, we found out that there is Marrow and some Cord blood available to Brendan. While this is good news, we were also told that neither the Marrow or the Cord Bone are ideal matches. What this means is that the Marrow is a 7/8 match, not an 8/8 match and the Cord Blood is a 5/6 match, not a 6/6 match. Since Brendan's illness has not progressed to Leukemia it is not a good idea to proceed with a match that is less than ideal. The risks associated with transplant are too high to take a less than perfect match. If Brendan does develop Leukemia before a more suitable match is found then the 7/8 match and the 5/6 match would be used. The risk of complications is greater if the match is not ideal. We continue to live in transplant no mans land and wait and wonder when a better match will be found.

Over the summer break, Brendan slowly withdrew from his medication. His reaction was one we expected. He had a fever and all the other horrible symptoms that go along with the fevers. The government has not approved the use of Enbrel on Brendan as he does not have a clear diagnosis for his auto-immune disease and Australia will only approve the drug according to a very strict criteria. His doctors are looking into other alternatives. He recently had another batch of blood tests done to see if anything would show up. They are also going to do another Marrow biopsy soon to check to see what his Marrow is doing. If his Marrow is changing for the worst we could be in Sydney in a week getting ready for transplant.

Some good News

Brendan will start school on Monday at a local school called St Bernadette's. The school has only 150 students and has a very caring and supportive environment. The school is only too happy to help meet Brendan's needs and support him at school and while he is in Sydney.

We hope everybody have a great Christmas and New Year

Cheers from Brendan, Anna, Richard, Tara and Kieran